Classes in the MA in Consciousness Studies and Transpersonal Psychology are currently meeting on Zoom. In the 24-month program, we typically four or five long weekends per year (Fri-Sun) for a period of 24 months, plus one full week in each of two summers. In the 18-month program, we typically meet for a long weekend every other month, plus one full week in each of two summers. Additional Zoom teleseminars on one weekday evening in the months when the cohort is not meeting. In addition, students engage in a 90-hour mentorship to acquire hands-on learning and experience outside of the classroom.

The MA program utilizes an integrated curriculum, where course content is delivered holistically across each of the program’s class sessions. ​

Courses and Descriptions

Certificate in Consciousness, Transformation and Mindfulness includes these courses:

CS 501: Stages and States of Consciousness: Catalyzing Adult Developmental Growth - 3 credits

PP 506: Positive Self-Realization and Transcendence - 2 credits​

Planned 30-Credit Program includes all courses below except:

CS 508: Personalized Learning and Guided Mentorship Experience

CS 509: Culminating Action Research Project in Consciousness Studies​

This course provides students with a basic introduction to human consciousness and the nature of its evolutionary transformation. Models of adult development and transformation continue to evolve, and students learn the foundations and current issues of this discussion. Models include Ken Wilber's Integral AQAL model, Robert Kegan's constructive-developmental theory model, and the models of development designed and promulgated by Susanne Cook-Greuter, Bill Torbert, and Jenny Wade. Students study methods of catalyzing their own developmental growth and that of others.

The study of the nature of beliefs and how they can be empowering in manifesting a vision and life purpose is the subject of this course. Students first identify and explore paradigms of consciousness and beliefs that have influenced the development of Western civilization from the Classical (Greek) period to postmodern societies. The dialectic between the Cartesian-Kantian assumptions underlying the dualistic, dis-enchanted, flatland modern mind, and the Neoplatonic-Hegelian-Jungian depth psychological assumptions of a unitive, participatory, co-creative universe is explored and seen as a major source of societal cognitive dissonance. The nature of a participatory universe is examined from the perspective of intention and manifestation of individual and collective visions, missions, and life purposes. Important to making powerful intentions is an understanding of the principles of manifestation, which include understanding the role of emotional states. Students learn to apply these principles to bring conscious awareness to hidden beliefs and underlying assumptions while leading their clients to higher vibrational levels, thereby co-creating powerful intentions and desired manifestations.

Epistemological and ontological reality is explored, beginning with a philosophical inquiry into the relationship between consciousness and matter, noting the worldviews of dualism, materialism, idealism and pansychism. Panpsychism is then related to the process philosophy of A.N. Whitehead, and how it in turn relates to quantum mechanics. The course also explores the principles of self-organization, chaos, complexity and holism, and their implications on culture and society. Particular note is made of the transition from a Newtonian, deterministic, clockwork universe to a profoundly uncertain and relativistic universe. Students are also exposed to the study of new sciences through inquiry into Rupert Sheldrake’s morphic resonance theory, David Bohm’s implicate order theory, Ervin Laszlo’s quantum vacuum field and information theory, and the holographic universe theory. The phenomenon of synchronicity is of particular relevance to this study. Students explore the impact of these new sciences on leadership, organizational change, and extraordinary ways of knowing.

This course explores the arts for the access they provide to broad realms of consciousness. Light, rhythm, and form, as expressed in art, music and dance are considered for their value in generating meaning through intuitive, emotional, aesthetic, and somatic interactions. Students examine prominent art of both ancient and contemporary cultures as a means of analyzing the evolution of human consciousness. In addition, creativity, in all of its forms, is investigated from the perspective of overcoming obstacles to the expression of one's own authentic voice. Twyla Tharp's complex thesis of the creative habit speaks to the need for both inspiration and discipline to make creativity part of one's everyday life. Students also learn and experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's positive state of consciousness he named "flow," a state in which people experience deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement with life. Exercises that allow for the expression of the creative self in a state of flow are included.

This course examines core principles of transformation within the context of psychological and psychospiritual development. Students undertake intensive research from indigenous wisdom traditions to the esoteric schools of Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and Kabbalah to the contemporary spirituality of American Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta (nonduality), and Wilber’s Integral Spirituality. States of consciousness as described in the Wilber-Combs matrix are explored, along with experiential practices to develop inner awareness and growth. Students engage in the Jungian psychospiritual practices of active imagination and shadow work with implications for their own self-development. Finally, the importance of “letting go,” and the development of the “unconditioned mind” are explored. Students continue to learn techniques for cultivating mindfulness and presence in light of these psychospiritual traditions.

One of the most successful and time-honored methods of learning involves direct interaction between a master and apprentice in a specific field. The experience of mentoring occurs when a notable senior of goodwill and expertise agrees to shepherd and support a junior in the various processes that facilitate learning. Mentoring provides learners the opportunity to observe the behaviors, skills, and accomplishments of experienced professionals. In a personal learning environment, mentors and learners often develop distinctive relationships that promote understanding, enable meaningful dialogues, and enhance success and competency. In contemporary parlance, the mentoring process embraces the functions often referred to in terms of coaching, apprenticing, interning, and guiding. Mentors provide program participants a valuable training support system that enables personal and professional growth and development. They are chosen on the basis of their insight, generosity, expertise, communication skills, resources, and intellectual and cultural strength.

The Culminating Project is an action-based research inquiry or meta-analysis intended to correlate with the mentorship experience. It is a student-driven initiative that is supported by educative feedback provided by the Program Coordinator. The Culminating Project constitutes the final course of the Consciousness Studies program. It represents three credits of independent research in a field or subject of personal interest that has emerged during the course of academic study.

The Culminating Project provides students the opportunity to refine and demonstrate their understanding of a particular area related to the evolutionary transformation of consciousness, to explore in detail a specific topic, and to exemplify their knowledge, ability and skills as independent researchers. Students complete a comprehensive report at the level of sophistication and efficacy of a Master’s thesis that establishes a foundation of knowledge, documents their research, presents an overview of findings, analyzes and synthesizes perspectives and interpretations, evaluates the learning process, and proposes outcomes and conclusions. The Culminating Project also serves as the basis for group dialogue, as each student formally presents his or her report to the cohort. Successful completion of the Culminating Project confirms learning throughout the Consciousness Studies program in accord with the program’s mission and goals.

This course integrates selected adult developmental growth theories (explored in previous courses of the program) with a robust coaching methodology. The purpose of this course is to provide the aspiring coach with theoretical and practical tools to facilitate the unfolding of the client’s own inner strengths and potential and, thus, enhance the client’s performance and attainment of his/her personal goals.

The course content is accredited by the ICF (International Coach Federation) and incorporates its Core Competencies, with special attention given to standards-based practices. In this regard students will be introduced to the four cornerstones of coaching - people are naturally creative; all parts of a client are welcome; the client sets the agenda; coaching focuses on the client not the problem. They will learn and practice how to listen, to design and ask powerful questions, and to outline a basic coaching session, including establishing the coaching agreement, establishing trust, maintaining presence, and practicing direct communication.

Students will also learn how to:

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• Help the client to welcome the inner “protectors” that have reservations about change

• Connect clients to their vision

• Set a resonant goal that draws the client into their vision

• Uncover what is “getting in the way” of manifesting the vision

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A core content unit of this course focuses on the concept of perspective change and its transformative power, introducing students to techniques specifically designed for helping clients explore multiple perspectives on inner and outer reality. Another relevant content unit focuses on self-acceptance and, more specifically, how can we help the client accepting himself as he is and thus giving himself permission to honor and actualize his potentials.

This course illustrates the historical origins and the theoretical and methodological foundations of Transpersonal Psychology, showing how this approach emerged (together with humanistic psychology) as an alternative to the two dominant currents in psychology at the time – behaviorism and psychoanalysis – which, although different in many respects, are quite similar in neglecting the psychological relevance of human aspects such as values, affections, motivations, intentionality, consciousness, transcendence and the search for the meaning of life.

Students will also be introduced to the foundational concepts and assumptions within these branches of Psychology, extending from human potential to human needs, from motivations to self-actualization, from states of consciousness to stages of development, from transcendence to transpersonality. Particular emphasis will be given to the interrelated constructs of multiple personality and sub-personality (as espoused by authors such as C.G. Jung, R. Assagioli, H. Stone and S. Stone and others), and to adult personal and transpersonal development (as espoused by authors such as E. Erikson, J. Loevinger, S. Cook-Greuter and others).

This course provides an overview of the historical, philosophical and theoretical foundations of Positive Psychology, with particular emphasis on its humanistic roots. The course outlines the origins, purposes and characteristics of Positive Psychology, focusing on series of shifts that have occurred in the last 2-3 decades: from focusing on cure to focusing on care; from focusing on health to focusing on wellbeing; and from focusing on wellbeing to focusing on happiness. Program participants will be introduced to selected model frameworks that make up the foundation of Positive Psychology, clarifying the fundamental difference between hedonic and eudemonic conceptions of happiness. Students will also be introduced to the strengths and limitations of Positive Psychology, encompassing it in the wider framework of Integrative Psychology.

This course is an introduction to the view that posits an open and inclusive (i.e., Holistic) vision of the world as being the most meaningful and effective framework for accessing emotional wellbeing and happiness. Course content includes a review of the current, dominant, scientific paradigm of fragmentation, materialism and reductionism, and delineates the epistemological and ethical limitations this approach engenders.

This course is grounded in Positive Psychology’s basic assumption that wellbeing and health can be obtained not only by curing diseases, but also by identifying, developing and addressing unexploited resources already present in individuals, groups and organizations. The overarching goal is to clarify the distinctions between reducing diseases and improving wellbeing, and to understand how to attain this improvement by developing metacognitive and psycho-social skills of interaction. The course introduces students to selected skills which have been proven by empirical research to be most conducive for promoting wellbeing and happiness: (i.e. Self-awareness, Resilience, Self-efficacy, Optimism, Hope, Courage, Wisdom, Inner harmony, Assertiveness). Students will also be introduced to the interrelated topics of flow experiences, expanded states of consciousness, transcendence and self-realization, and to those methods and techniques that facilitate the attainment of such states. Course content includes basic information and techniques on how to process “negative” emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shame, embarrassment etc.) as well as positive emotions such as love, joy, and gratitude. Students will also engage in mindfulness, meditation and yoga exercises addressed to develop the non-judgmental (first “witness”) capacity that is essential for creating and sustaining emotional wellbeing and happiness.

Based on the humanistic psychology concept of self-actualization, and grounded in Maslow’s Theory of Needs, this course promulgates self-realization as an indispensable requirement for wellbeing and happiness in both hedonic and eudemonic models. The overarching goal of the course is to enable program participants to understand the distinctions between becoming someone and realizing oneself, i.e. from the common meaning of self-realization (i.e., socioeconomic attainment) and the humanistic psychology meaning (i.e., focused on human potential development). Students will be introduced to the concepts of false self and true self, and to the theories of selected authors who have studied the psycho-pathogenic role of personality distortions. Program participants will also be provided an overview of the personal development process, and to the related theories. Course content will include an overview of two fundamental factors for self-realization: a) self-awareness as an indispensable tool for discovering one’s own talents and potential; and b) unconditional self-acceptance as an indispensable condition for allowing oneself to develop those talents and potential. In essence, the course will orient students to effective techniques for facilitating the discovery of one’s own talents and potential, and for identifying and transforming any irrational beliefs that may limit or hinder development.